NOTES AND COMMENTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 106, 31 October 1914, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(IT "SIR lANCSLOT.") From the details of the totalisptor investments at Wellington, Waverley, Oamaru, Gore, and Greymouth, published this week, it was seen that, with the exception of the Greymouth Jockey Club, there was an all-round increase of £12,566 10s. Ifc is very satisfactory that the unrest caused by the war has in no way affected the main source of revenue of the clubs, especially as the various patriotic funds are likely to profit by the I satisfactory financial results of the meetings. The most important handicap eveht set down for decision in Australasia will be run at Flemington on Tuesday. ! Thirty-five horses remain in the race, the list being headed by those two good stayers Cagou and Lilyveil. Eleven horses had earned penalties, but five of these— Greyspear, Barlow, Pinkerton, Amata, and Psyttyx — failed to make the final payment. Three of the others — Eathlea, Uncle Sam, and St. Spasa— will have to put up 101b extra, Giru 71b eixtra, and Wassail 51b extra. The Spring Stakes winner, St. Carwyne, who finished third in the Metropolitan Stakes and Caulfield Cup, reads well in with 7.1. The Eandwick Plate winner, Ulva's Isle, has 8.3, and Positanus, last year's winner, 8.8. The New Zealand representatives in the race are St. Solo (8.3) and Moonbria (7.3). Waltz (who put up a good gallop over a mile and a-half at Caulfield on Thursday in company with Owen Roe, a good performer in Queensland), is in the Cup with 7.3. Owen Roe (who is by Nonette) has 7.8. Waltz is an imported mare by Yorkshire Lad— Cakewalk, and raced in America before coming to New South Wales, where she won three races as a five-year-old, but failed to get placed in any race she started in last season. To win the Melbourne Cup Uncle Sam will require to equal the record made by Poseidon, who took that race after winning the Caulfield Cup in 1906. Acrasia won the Melbourne Cup after running second fa Murmur in the Caulfield Clip, and Apologue ran second in one race and first in the other. Dewey tried to win the Melbourne Cup after taking the Caulfield event, but could only get third to Merriwee and Boyou. Grace Darling won the Caulfield Cup and beat all save Sheet Anchor in the Melbourne Cup. Tradition was second in both races, so was Tulkeroo. Winning both the Cups has, therefore, been an order that has proved very difficult to complete. Uncle Sam has already tried it. Two years ago he was third in the Melbourne Cup after accounting for the Caulfield race, and he is to have the opportunity to improve that performance. After the smart performance he put up over a mile course on the second day at Trentham the owners of Columbus no doubt wished the colt %ad been left in the New Zealand Cup, in which he had the minimum weight to carry. All going well in the meantime the colt is to fulfil his engagement in the Great Northern Derby, to be run at the Auckland Summer Meeting. The totalisator arrangements at Trentham came in for some criticism from an Auckland writer who was present at t'!\ 6 , mcct * n £>; Se expresses himself thus : "The club's totalisator arrangements badly want improving, and it is understood the question of installing a machine on the same principle as that in use at Ellerslie is now under consideration. The antiquated style of selling tickets in vogue at Trentham is a big drawback, j while there were not nearly enough payout windows to accommodate the crowd, j and on several occasions the paying out was not completed before the next race had started. The Wellington Club is fast reaching the level of Auckland and Canterbury, and the time does not seem very far distant when their totalisator investments will reach the amount handled in the mentioned places. This being so, the club should improve' the facilities at the machines, which would not only be a big benefit to themselves, but would, also be of great convenience to speculators." No doubt when the new Julius totalisator is installed at Trentham there will be little or no cause for complaint in this important department. : Latest Melbourne files confirm the statement in these columns some weeks back that the New Zealand horseman E. Lowe will have the mount on Sir Solo in the Melbourne Cup. The horseman named has ridden successfully in South Australia and Queensland. A. Audas, who was regarded as the leading horseman in Western Australia, was disqualified for a ehort period at the Merredin meeting for careless riding. It is said that he made things rather merry for a time, and the result was that the stewards reported the matter to the W.A.T.C. Committee. The committee took a serious view of the case, and disqualified Audas for life for gross misbehaviour. Audae has ridden in Melbourne. Among the horses engaged at Ellerslie on the opening day of the Spring Meeting are Taurangi and Makiri, whq competed in the steeplechases at Trentham, also Ineuru, King Lupin. Epworth, Tyson, and Watene, who were among the competitors at Waverley. It was reported that the Soult mare, Anna Carlovna would go to Mr. Sol Green's Shipley Stud at the conclusion of her racing career. Mr. Connolly has evidently altered his mind, as she has been sent to the Blackwood Stud to be mated with the imported horse Mazagan, who does stud duty with Planudes and The Scribe. Mazagan was a good performer in England, where he won the Jockey Club Cup at Newmarket (over the Cesarewitch course, two miles and a-quarter), beating the Australian performer Merman ; the Goodwood Cup (two miles and a-half), and other races. He proved a success at the stud in America, where during the season 1912 thirty-two of his progeny won ninetytwo races. Mazagan is by Martagon (sire of Martian, Lily veil,, etc.) from Maize (a daughter of Hampton), a good performer herself, and the clam of several winners and dams of winners. In the Cup Hurdle Race, two miles, run at Flemington on Tuesday, the successful performer Clontaft has 12.13, and on his recent form at Caulfield, where he won with 12.3, does not appear badly treated. United Kingdom (12.3) heads the list in the Cup Steeplechase, two miles. Master Paul, the smart New Zealand performer, has 11.9. The Cambridgeshire Stakes winner, Honeywood. is owned by Mr. S. B. Joel. He is sired by Polymolus — Honeybird, and is trained by C. Peck at Newmarket. Last season Honeywood was only once un-

placed out of twelve starts. He scored four times— in the Carterham Plate, five furlongs, at Epsom, the Nottingham Breeders' Foal Plate, five furlongs, the Buckenham Stakes and the Boscawen Stake*, both races five furlongs 134 yards, at Newmarket. Handicaps for the minor events on the opening day of the C.J.C. Meeting appeared yesterday. Kilmeny. who won ! a double at Riccarton in the autumn, ! heads the list in the Spring Hurdles with 11.13. The two local representative*, Fashion Plate and Big Blast, have 11.6 and 9.8. In the Riccarton Welter, the distance of which event has been increased from a mile to nine furlong 6, My Lawyer, who has ehown winning form at Dunedin and South Canterbury recently, and Red Book, who recently returned from Sydney, have 9.13 apiece The imported harse Feramorz has 9.9. On thei? form at Trentham Fair Rosamond (9.6) and Birkful (9.0) look a likely pair to run prominently. Kaminohe won the Rimutaka Handicap nicely at Trentham, and he may prove the best of the top weights in the Linwood Handicap, seven furlongs. Montana (8.4), Borsil (7.7), and St. Elmn (7.7) are other North Island representatives with recent form to recommend them. Mr. W. Reid, owner of Uncle Sam, is the grandfather of J. Ettershank, who rode that horse to victory in the Caulfield Cup. At the eleventh hour H. Cairns was taken i off Rathlea in the Caulfield Cup, and'W. Evans, who rode Apologue in the Melbourne Cup, substituted. J. Killorn rode R-athlea in the Toorak Handicap and H. Cairns was up in the Eclipse Stakes. Siv Lancelot understands that A. Oliver will have the mount on Chortle and C. Price will be on Postillion in the Stewards' Handicap at Riccarton. Mr. W. A. Menzies will be unable to attend the V.R.C. Spring Meeting and Mr. J. K. Maitland will make the handicaps for the minor events. As a result of the enquiry into Golden Grape's form when he won the Wantwood Steeplechase at the Gore meeting, as compared with his poor showing in the_ Eastern Steeplechase, the stewards decided to disqualify the winner and award the race to Tommy, who finished second. In addition, the stewarde decided to disqualify J. R. Kaan, the rider of Golden Grape, for two years, and S. Reid was placed under the ban for a similar term for collusion with Kaan and giving misleading evidence. Golden Grape was unplaced on the first day and won on the second. In the three principal events at the Queensland Turf Club's Meeting, to be held on 7th, 11th. and 14th November, the Brisbane Handicap, of 500 soys. one mile ; Queensland Cup, of 1000 soys, two miles; and Sandgate Handicap, of 600 soys. one mile and a quarter, the New Zealand-bred horse Lord Burnside (Yasco—lima) and the Queensland champion My, Gavonni head the list with 9.11 each. The following paragraph from the Australasian explains a recent cable which appeared in the war news.— "At least one Australian buyer has been unlucky in Europe since the declaration of war. Mr. P. J. Fox, of Perth, paid 500 guineas for the Hungarian-bred colt Aides, but was unable to get him out of the country, as he was seized by the Austrian Government as soon as war was declared. He was bred at the Army Stud at Sutveny. There was some objection to tha colt being raced by the army people, so he was sold with three others to General Merhal, who passed them on at a profit to Baron Springer, with the stipulation that he had to race them for three years, and then sell them back to the Ministry of Agriculture, who would then lease them to the Army Stud for stud purposes. They were sent to England and trained at Newmarket by J. Butters, and they were a success there. Adular was a high-class sprinter, and won several good races, and Aides won the Lewis Handicap in good style. Aides is by Kilcock (6on of Kilwarh'n) from Ivad, by Ejjeli-or (son of Kisber) from Ivad 1., by Riado (son of Virgilius) from Pamphlet (imp.), by The Libel from a mare by Hampton from a mare by The Colonel. Pamphlet was an English-bred mare taken to Hungary by General Bruderman in 1863. Ivad and Ivad I. did not race, and were used as harness horses before being retired to the stud. Kilcock is a son of the English St. Leger winner Kilwarlin (son of Arbitrator), and his dam, Bonnie Morn, was a full-sister to Bonnie Rose, the granddam of Mountain King, Bonnie Chiel, and Scottish King.